Standalone
by Ramen Brother
Summary: Kid is in Chicago working on a confusing mission while mysterious reports of a figure roaming the streets late at night flood Death City. Could the two be related?
1. Dream Sequence

Standalone  
Chapter One: Dream Sequence

"You see, the fingertips can extend into chains with spiked tips, so it's very efficient for both grabbing and attacking. They also come with ends shaped like axes for a stronger attack. The legs can also extend into chains for a quick getaway. And the best part is, it doesn't even need a partner to assist it; maximum efficiency for the maximum yield!"

"An autonomous weapon? That hardly seems like maximum efficiency; it can't perform Soul Resonance with a single soul, can it?"

"Its strength far outweighs the need to perform Soul Resonance."

"I'm not sure I really buy that. I'm not even sure this is a good idea. I mean, it seems a little shady, and what would the kids think?"

"Don't worry. It knows you'll accept it eventually."

"Oh, it 'knows' does it?"

"Yes. It knows. It always knows."

***

FWINNG!

The sharp blade passed so close to Soul's face that it managed to graze it, leaving a tiny cut line no thicker than a sheet of paper. Soul immediately woke up, yelped and tumbled from his seat. The classroom burst into laughter; Maka sighed and rubbed her forehead.

"The next time you fall asleep in my class I can't guarantee you'll get away with such a small scratch," muttered Dr. Stein, "Now, if we can get back to the lesson, we see that that…"

Soul stumbled to get back into his seat, pressing his hand against the thin cut in his cheek to stop the bleeding.

"Damnit…" he groaned. Maka rolled her eyes.

"This is proof that you just can't stay up all night, Soul," she said in a wise tone of voice. Soul scoffed.

"Oh please," he said, "You were up 'til 1:00 last night reading! How do justify that?"

"And how, exactly, would you know when I went to bed?" Maka said smartly. Soul tried to come up with a response, but just wound up scoffing again.

The bell rang, ushering Soul and Maka out of the classroom and out into the courtyard in front of the school, where the students had a habit of congregating after their final class. Maka was alert and chipper, but her companion Soul was lagging and sleepy, his steps slow and lethargic.

"So, our essay on inhuman weapons is due next Thursday," said Maka as they headed out towards their apartment, "I don't know if it's a good idea, but do you think we should try and interview Crona? After all, we don't know anyone else with an inhuman weapon, right?"

"Myeh…" grunted Soul. Maka looked at him curiously, but kept walking.

"There's a sale at the bakery today," she said, "Do you want any pretzel bread?"

"Mmph…" Soul groaned again. Maka gave him another curious look, but he continued to stare at the ground, his hat pulled over his eyes.

"So I heard Black Star and Tsubaki were making out in the bathroom yesterday," Maka said casually.

"What!?" Soul blurted. He turned his head in surprise and tripped on a slanted brink, landing face-first on the pavement. Maka snickered quietly as he rose to his feet and wiped the blood from his nose.

"Just seeing if you were paying attention," said Maka, "Clearly you weren't."

"That's not funny!" snapped Soul, which only made Maka snicker more. The two proceeded in silence for a while until they were right outside their apartment's door.

"Hey, Soul," said Maka, "do your remember the dream you had today?"

"Huh?" the weapon said, "What, you mean when I was sleeping class?"

"I, for one, don't typically remember my dreams when I'm not sleeping in my own bed. Do you?" Soul thought for a moment. He had a dream, he remembered, but he wasn't sure what it was, exactly.

"I think I had a dream, yeah," he said, "but it was just a few voices talking about something or other; there wasn't anything happening. I probably bored myself awake. Hah!"

"Yeah," Maka muttered, "because getting a knfie thrown at your face is just so dull." There was a long pause.

"Oh!" Maka exclaimed, "It was a pun! See? A knife? Dull? See? It was funny! See? See?" Soul groaned and shuffled inside.

"He never sees…" sighed Maka as she followed suit, shutting and locking the door behind her. Dinner that night was fairly quiet, as Soul was strangely tired; after finishing his homework, he went to bed early. As he lay in his bed, staring up at his own ceiling, he tried to analyze the dream he had earlier that day. There were voices, but none of them were familiar to him. Except maybe one; the voice that was skeptical about whatever was being discussed rang a bell to Soul, but he was too tired to figure out who it was. He shut his eyes and drifted off to sleep faster than usual.

***

"Its strength far outweighs the need to perform Soul Resonance."

"I'm not sure I really buy that," someone said in a sing-song voice, "I'm not even sure this is a good idea. I mean, it seems a little shady, and what would the kids think?"

"Don't worry. It knows you'll accept it eventually."

"Oh, it 'knows' does it?"

"Yes. It knows. It always knows."

A small wall made of brick appeared, surrounding and surrounded by utter darkness. A spotlight appeared, and in the center of the ring there was a figure. Its eyes were dark gray and lifeless and its joints were pushed together lazily, like someone had hastily put together a marionette and this was the end result. For a while there was silence. Then there was a grinding of gears in the darkness and a whir of machinery as the carefully-crafted limbs came to life, pushing and pulling at the air like it was clay waiting to be molded. Soul watched from a metal bench behind the wall at the hands as they slowly swung about in the pitch blackness.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" came a voice. Soul turned to find a man dressed in a long robe sitting beside him. His face was obscured by the large hood, but his voice was raspy and harsh.

"It's not beautiful," said Soul as he regarded the animated arms in the center of the darkness, "It's pointless. Someone should stop it."

"Someone," whispered the man, "but not you." The hands paused and the head jerked upward, the long brown "hair" pushed back to reveal its once-placid eyes now glowing brilliantly and its artificial mouth contorted into a twisted grin.

***

Soul awoke, panting heavily. His skin felt clammy and cold and his surroundings were dark. He groped around in the darkness and found a light switch. Flipping it on, he found that he was back in his room, the surroundings usual. He glanced at his clock; it read 4:25 AM.

_So it was just a dream_, thought Soul, rubbing his eyes. He put his head back down on his pillow and turned the light off. As he fell back asleep, he was unaware that a figure loomed on the adjacent rooftop, its eyes glowing vibrantly and its mouth pressed into an eerie smile. It dragged itself off the roof, its metallic limbs clanking and clamoring every step of the way.


	2. Average Chicago Day

Standalone  
Chapter Two: Average Chicago Day

_NOTE: Despite the fact that I received __**no**__ reviews for Chapter One (was it something I said?) I'm going to go ahead and put Chapter Two out… because it will be epic. I guarantee it!_

"This map makes no sense," Kid muttered as he pulled his cloak around him for warmth, "It says that the system of trains is called the 'L' but it doesn't look anything like a letter 'L' at all! It looks more like… like…"

"Scribbles?" piped Patty as she trodded through the snow in her knee-high boots.

"Yes! Scribbles! Precisely!" Kid exclaimed, "The creator of these rails was clearly blind. Or just dumb. Or perhaps both!"

"Enough!" Liz snapped, "It's freezing out here! Let's find that place sometime soon, yeah?" The three of them were marching through the snow of Chicago in an attempt to find the enigmatic Lam Building, where many people had claimed to have seen and heard things that weren't explainable. Kid thought, however, that the reports regarding the Lam Building didn't relate to the recent stream of murders in the Albany Park neighborhood. Still, since there hadn't been many other interesting missions available, Kid took what he could get. As they worked their way against the frigid wind, Kid paused and sighed heavily.

"Just look," he said, "Each and every one of these snowflakes is completely symmetrical! We're literally up to our knees in symmetry!" He stared around him, completely engrossed by the industrial scenery, but mainly the thick white blanket that covered it. Liz sighed in frustration and held in a sneeze.

"Hey Liz," said Patty, "Why isn't anyone here?"

"Beats me," Liz muttered as she examined the empty sidewalks and streets, "This city's usually pretty busy, but this area looks like it's been abandoned."

"The residents were probably scared away by those murders," said Kid, "and until we prove that the Lam Building is unrelated, they're going to steer clear of this area."

"Even during the summer?" exclaimed Patty, "I'd bet it's too pretty to avoid in the summertime."

"These people will stay away from the Lam Building and the surrounding area regardless of season if they suspect it's haunted," sighed Kid, "We should clear this matter up as soon as possible." Liz extended a frigid finger into the gusty air.

"Hey, Kid," she said, "That sign over there… it's the Lam Building sign, right?"

"So it is!" Kid said, "We got here faster than I expected." The three teenagers approached the building. It was tall and intimidating, and surprisingly well-maintained. It was a hexagonal building exactly six stories high, and there were six windows on the front, sides, and back of the building. The neon sign in front clearly read "Lam Building" though there was no indication as to what the building's purpose was, exactly. From the look of things, the building was neat, tidy, and harmless.

"Well would ya look at that?" said Liz, "It's symmetrical. There are six stories, six windows on each side, six sides…" She shuddered in the cold.

"Well, let's not just stand around in the blizzard," Liz said hastily, "Let's go inside!" Liz and Patty began to move towards the entrance, but Kid stuck his hand out in front of their path.

"Wait," he said, "Look up." Liz and Patty looked up at the building. They saw nothing.

"I don't see anything," Patty said, "and it's cold! Inside!"

"No," said Kid, "Look closer. The sign. Liz and Patty squinted at the sign in question. It was between the third and fourth floor, and stood up over the third and fourth windows in the row. The bright pink neon shone clearly in the white snow.

"Kid, there isn't anything there," snapped Liz, "Now let's get inside before we freeze to death!"

"Don't you see it!?" Kid screamed, "The sign is too far to the left! It's perfectly visible and entirely unacceptable!" Kid took out his skateboard Beelzebub and shot himself upward so that he was perfectly level with the sign.

"Kid, this is ridiculous!" yelled Liz, "I don't care if you wanna freeze out here, but Patty and I are going inside!" Kid didn't seem to notice; he was busy adjusting the sides of the sign to be perfectly equal. Liz reached for the front door's handle, pulled down…

…and watched as the handle came clean off. She moaned loudly.

"Well this is just perfect!" she groaned, "I guess this place is older than it looks." As she spoke these words, Liz felt the ground rumble slightly. She wheeled around but saw nothing but the blank white field of snow behind her. She was a little confused.

"Kid! You're really high up!" said Patty, "Don't fall and break your back."

"Don't be concerned about that kind of thing," Kid muttered as he examined his work, "Focus on finding a way inside."

"Well it'd be a lot easier if the door would actually open!" Liz snapped, growing more impatient by the second. Again she felt the ground shake, like something was approaching from under the ground. Liz turned, but again she saw nothing. Now she was getting scared. Kid was about to return to the ground when he paused, noticing that the chains that held the sign up were tangled around one another.

"Tch! How could someone allow this sign to wind up in this state? It's inexcusable!" He began to fiddle with the chains in an attempt to straighten them out. By now the rumbling sound was almost constant and was growing increasingly loud. Liz was beginning to panic.

"Kid!" she screamed, "Get down here! Something's coming this way!" Patty began to giggle incessantly.

"Lookit! It's a bunny!" Patty squealed and pointed towards a large mound of snow that was moving quickly towards her. Liz had had enough.

"Patty, transform! Quick!" she said harshly, "We have to get rid of whatever that thing is, since Kid obviously won't help us." Patty gasped.

"No!" she exclaimed, stepping in front of her sister with her arms outstretched, "I won't let you hurt an innocent little bunny!" It was at this point that the 'innocent little bunny' had reached Patty. It stopped moving forward and lifted itself out of the snow, revealing something that was quite un-bunny-like. It had a large, rectangular body of what appeared to be asphalt, and its eyes were simplistic and lopsided, like a child had taken crayons to a tarmac. Its 'mouth' was open and gaping, revealing rows of sharp fangs. It didn't have hands; rather, it had what appeared to be red streamers sprouted from every side of its body.

Liz stuttered weakly.

Patty tilted her head, confused.

And the thing slammed itself onto them both.


	3. Animated Ragdoll

Standalone  
Chapter Three: Animated Ragdoll

I know it's been a while since I updated, but this chapter is definitely longer than the past two. Enjoy!

The classroom was silent. No one was looking anywhere in particular, save for Stein, who was focused on the doorway that led into the classroom. The windows were all wide open in hopes of getting fresh air into the room to somehow negate the intense heat. It wouldn't help any; it was Nevada. It was always hot in Nevada. Soul felt particularly sluggish today, in part because of the bizarre dream he had the previous night that prevented him from getting a good night's sleep. His forehead was pressed against the table, beads of sweat dropping to the floor. Somewhere in the distance, a crow cawed. This scene hadn't changed for fifteen whole minutes.

"Well," Stein said finally, breaking the long silence and snapping several students to attention, "we were supposed to have a new student today, but I guess he's not here. Nevertheless, we'll get started with today's lesson on advanced resonance theory…" Soul groaned and pulled his head from the table.

"I'm exhausted…" he moaned. Maka sighed.

"You really need to get more sleep," she advised. Maka wiped her brow.

"But geez," she said, "it really is hot today." Maka turned her head to the vacant seat beside her.

"Crona isn't here today?" she said.

"Guess not," said Soul, "I heard Crona took up a difficult mission and is gonna be out for a while, but I dunno how believable that is."

"Kid's gone, Liz is gone, Patty's gone, Crona's gone…" muttered Maka, "The class is practically-"

"Maka!" Stein snapped, "Since you've obviously gone and memorized this section already, why don't you tell me who the first person to successfully pull off the coordinates described to initiate stage two orbital resonances was?"

"Sir," Maka protested, "what makes you think that I've memorized the-"

"You're talking," he said, "which means you don't need to learn, which logically means you've already learned the information. Correct? Now who was it?" Maka sighed and stood up.

"The first record of successful stage two orbital resonance was the spear meister Cu Chulainn circa the 13th century with his weapon partner Gae Bulg." Maka recited it like she had known it all her life and had long since grown bored with it. Stein feigned neutrality; he was actually somewhat surprised.

"Correct," said Stein, turning his attention back to the blackboard, "though this information was disregarded as the 14th century reared around, the public instead turning their attention towards…" Maka sighed and sat back down. Soul blinked in awe at her.

"That was such a trivial piece of information," he said, "and you memorized it?" Maka grinned.

"It's what you get when you stay up late reading," she chuckled.

"First you tell me not to stay up late, now you tell me its benefits?" he chided as he stared out the window, "Make up your mi-" Soul's eyes widened and he did a double-take. Standing on a rooftop adjacent to the Shibusen campus was the creepiest figure Soul had ever seen, and he had seen it twice now. Its skin was pale and sickly and its legs were wobbly and off-kilter. Its neck was tilted at a bizarre angle and its arms were deadweight at its sides. Its clothes consisted of a ripped and tattered black-and-red striped shirt and a pair of what used to be jeans but now could barely be called fabric. It wore no shoes. Its fingers were crudely pieced together, as though someone tore them apart and attempted to sew them back on but did a very poor job, and its toes followed suit. Its hair was long and brown, obscuring the eyes, but its mouth was distinctly frowning, partly-open in an expression of despair. For a few seconds it just stood there, looming, before it fell backwards, sliding off the rooftop with a sort of haunting grace, then disappearing behind the building.

"M-Maka!" Soul whispered, "There's something outside!"

"What do you mean?" she asked, keeping her voice down to avoid Stein's attention.

"It's a thing!" Soul said, "It has droopy hair and pale skin and stitched-up hands and… and…" He paused for a moment.

"Soul," said Maka, "You do realize you just described Professor Stein, right?" Soul was getting frustrated.

"It's not human!" he snapped aloud. The whole class turned and stared at Soul. Stein glanced over at him expectantly.

"Yes?" Stein said, "What's not human?" Soul stuttered for a moment, quickly glancing across the blackboard and piecing together bits of information to no avail.

"Uhh…" he said finally, "The… Kishin?" There was a long silence.

"Elaborate," said Stein, "unless, of course, this information is some sort of revelation to you." Soul stuttered some more and tried to get something from what was written on the blackboard, but it all seemed like nonsense to him. He finally gave up and simply heaved a heavy sigh. There was another long silence.

"See me after class, Mr. Evans," said Stein. Soul winced and sat back down. He took one last glance out the window. There wasn't anything on the red roof across the street, no trace of the creature he saw earlier.

***  
As the students left the classroom in a hurry (Black Star and Maka waved goodbye before rushing out the door) Soul lingered in the room a little longer. Once everyone had left, Stein shut the door. He turned to Soul with a furrowed brow

"Soul," he said, "I understand that it's very hot and that the school decided to spend the air conditioning money on a new mirror for Shinigami-sama's Death Room instead of repairs, but it's clear that you're not just irritated by the heat. You barely grasp the basics of this unit, and while I understand that stage two orbital resonances is hardly the most interesting subject on the face of the earth, I think it best for you to put more effort into your studies and less effort into chatting idly with your partner. Is that clear?" Soul didn't respond right away.

"Well, Professor," he said, "It's just… I haven't been sleeping well lately, and I thought I saw something outside. Maybe it was a mirage, or a hallucination, or whatever, but…" He sighed angrily.

"Damnit," Soul moaned, "Stuttering isn't cool at all." Stein shrugged slightly.

"I just want you to be better prepared next class, and keep in mind that the test on this and the previous three units is coming up next week." With that, Stein reopened the door, and Soul shuffled out into the hall. The door quickly closed behind him, leaving him alone to sigh and think about what he saw. He didn't think about it long before Maka approached him.

"Hmm?" said Soul inquisitively, "You're still here? I thought you were going home with Black Star and Tsubaki."

"I was going to," said Maka, "but I wanted to be here when Stein got done lecturing you. Black Star and Tsubaki decided to stop by the bakery. I heard they extended their sale. Wanna go get something? They have a new batch of melonpan out and ready in the storefront and it's really-"

"Maka," Soul interrupted, "There's something I need to go check out. I want you to come with me." Soul began to head towards the staircase.

"Ooh, intriguing!" Maka chirped happily as she followed her partner out, "Where are we going?"

"Nowhere special," said Soul, "It's an alleyway near the school."

"An alleyway?" Maka said, tilting her head slightly, "What's so special about an alleyway?"

"I think there might be something there," said Soul, "something worth checking out."

***  
"So if it fell from this roof here," muttered Soul, pointing his finger from the edge of the roof above him down the alley wall, "then it should've landed somewhere around… there!" He ran over to a large Dumpster and began to examine it thoroughly. Maka groaned.

"I bet Black Star and Tsubaki are buying melonpan right now," she whined, "Why did you drag me here, anyway?"

"If what I saw was really at the rooftop," said Soul as he peered through the Dumpster, "then it should've landed around this alleyway. That is, assuming it didn't run off somewhere, but it seemed pretty inanimate to me, so it would've fallen around this area…"

"Hey, Soul," Maka said, "is that it over there?" Soul turned and saw a pair of legs sticking out from an upturned cardboard box. Soul's eyes widened and he threw the box up. Underneath was a scraggly old man with a mangy beard and beady green eyes, eating a sandwich. He screamed and scrambled to retrieve his box, quickly pulling it back over his head.

"What's the big idea!?" the man yelled, "Don't interrupt people when they're eating!" Soul and Maka blinked in surprise. The old man was clearly angry.

"Argh!" he yelled, "I've had enough with you people! First with the interruption when I'm trying to sleep, now when I'm trying to eat? What do I owe the world!?" Soul and Maka blinked again.

"Let's go, Soul," said Maka finally, "I don't think there's anything here of interest."

"Y-yeah…" Soul said, and the two left the alley. When they were out of sight, the homeless man sighed happily and took another huge bite out of his sandwich. He was chewing contently when, out of the corner of his eye, he saw something. Turning, he discovered an arm sprawled out on the pavement just a little further down the alley. The rest of the body was concealed behind part of a wall. The man was concerned; the arm was completely limp and motionless, and extremely pale. Whoever's arm it was clearly needed medical attention. The man, still clutching his sandwich, crawled over to the arm.

"Hey," he said, "are you okay?" Just as he got close to the arm, it contracted, pulling itself entirely behind the wall.

"What…?" the man muttered. He scratched his head.

"Hey, don't be alarmed," he insisted, slowly peeking around the wall, "I just think you need medical atten-" The homeless man stopped. He was staring not at an arm but at two wobbly bare feet, scratched and stitched like they were the remnants of some terrible fight. There was dried blood splattered across the ankle and toes. The man slowly turned his attention upwards. As he saw what loomed above him, he screamed. His cries were cut short almost instantly by the sound chains clinking against one another, then a sickening crunch. The man's eyes rolled back in his head and he fell to one side, blood oozing from the gaping wound around his body. The mysterious figure opened its palms wide as the mass of now-bloodied chains pulled themselves back into its hands. With a twist of its head, the creature wobbled away into the depths of the city.


	4. Valley Forge

Standalone  
Chapter Four: Valley Forge

Death the Kid wheeled around in horror to find that his two weapon companions were seemingly buried beneath the enormous weight of the creature. For about half a second, he was convinced that all hope was lost. But then, a thunderous cry shattered the silence as the monster reeled back in agony. Just before the crushing blow was delivered, Patty had managed to get into her weapon form. With the tiny bit of space available, Liz had fired the gun and sent the monster tumbling backwards.

The creature's bizarre proportions made it stumble awkwardly before falling backwards flat on its back. A nearly-flattened Liz arose from the crater it had made.

"Jesus!" she screamed as her sister transformed out of her weapon form, "What the hell is that?!" Kid dropped down next to Liz; he had finished straightening the sign anyway.

"Are you okay?" he demanded. Liz stretched her hand out and grabbed him by the neck, wringing him back and forth several times.

"No I'm not okay!" she screamed, "The next time you stand idly by and screw with a sign instead of save your partners, give us some warning, huh!?"

"It… had… to… be… fixed…" stuttered Kid between gasps for breath. Liz had enough and released her deathly grip on Kid's neck. The Shinigami gasped with relief, panting heavily.

"Alright," he choked, "Let's beat that… thing." Liz and Patty transformed into their weapon forms and slid upside-down into Kid's hands just as the strange rectangular monster righted itself up again.

"BAHAKI…" it groaned scratchily, "WHY DID YOU LEAVE ME? WHY, BAHAKI, WHY?"

"Bahaki?" said Kid, "Who's that?"

"BAHAKI…" the monster moaned, "I LOVE YOU, BAHAKI!" Suddenly the red streamers at its sides snapped straight and dove towards Kid, who made a quick run to the right and avoided them. Several of the streamers spun after him, but he quickly mounted Beelzebub and shot upward over the battlefield.

"What, is it mourning its lost love?" muttered Liz.

"What a sentimental bunny!" Patty cheered.

"It's not a bunny!" snapped Liz.

"Pay attention!" Kid said as the streamers dove up towards him. He twisted around the red ribbons and headed straight down towards the main body. Raising Liz and Patty up, he began to shoot at the monster's face. Just as he was beginning to fire, however, the creature slid sideways, retracting all the streamers to its sides and slipping under the snow once again. It was completely undetectable under the sheet of white snow.

"Where did it go?" uttered Kid. He looked around, but there wasn't even a lump to indicate its presence.

"Kid," Liz said, "I think that those streamers make that thing aerodynamic or something, because when we hit it before and its streamers were limp, it just collapsed and didn't try to get into the snow."

"So if we destroy the streamers, it won't be able to hide?" said Kid, "That's a worthwhile strategy. For the time being, we need to find out where-" The rectangular creature leapt out of the snow behind Kid and slammed him into the ground with a streak of streamers to the back. Kid quickly righted himself, turning around to look at his opponent. What he saw was a barrage of streamers shooting towards him. He aimed carefully and fired several times. A few of the streamers received bullet holes, but they were still speeding towards him. Kid dove out of the way just moments before they struck the cold earth. One red streak managed to hit Kid, slicing his sleeve and leaving a large cut on his arm.

"Damn," said Kid, "Those things are razor-sharp." The creature turned to face Kid.

"BAHAKI," it cried in agony, "LOVE ME, BAHAKI! ACCEPT ME!" All of the red streamers at its sides snapped to attention and swung from both the left and right towards where Kid was.

"Kid!" screamed Liz, and the boy sprung up with Beelzebub not a moment too soon as the mass of streamers tangled together into a large mess. The monster tried to retract the ribbons, but they were all smashed together and were immobile; it could not put them at its sides to go underground.

"They aren't destroyed," said Kid, "but this'll work." He spun over with Beelzebub, now positioned directly above the monster, upside-down, with Liz and Patty facing downward. And the rain of bullets began. The beast cried out in agony.

"NO!" it screamed, "BAHAKI! PLEASE! I LOVE YOU, BAHAKI!" The monster's eyes began to glow fluorescent red, and before Kid could react, he was shot into the air, Beelzebub thrown far away and Liz and Patty falling to the ground. Kid sailed, flipped, and slammed into a suspended steel railway. He fell down into a snow bank and remained motionless. Liz and Patty returned to their human forms.

"Kid!" Liz cried out as Kid sat up in the snow, "That monster's enraged! There's no stopping it while it's angry!"

"The bunny just wants to be with this Bahaki," said Patty, "We should reunite them!"

"Forget that!" said Liz, "We don't even know who 'Bahaki' is! For all we know, this 'Bahaki' guy could be dead!"

"Maybe he is," Kid sighed as he pulled himself to his feet, "but that monster clearly doesn't realize that." Kid slowly approached the creature, which was screeching loudly, its red streamers flailing in every direction.

"BAHAKI," it cried, "WHERE ARE YOU, BAHAKI? PLEASE, ACCEPT ME!"

"Oi!" Kid cried, the beast's attention turning towards the tiny figure behind him, "Bahaki's gone. Long gone. Whoever he is, he hasn't been here in years."

"THAT'S… NOT TRUE!" the monster screamed, its anger rising, "WE LIVE HERE! BAHAKI AND I! THIS BUILDING IS OUR HOME!"

"You might live here," said Kid, "but Bahaki hasn't been around for a while. Your 'home' has long been abandoned. You're here alone." The creature screamed louder than ever and its eyes began glowing red again.

"Kid!" Liz said as she scrambled to her feet, "What do you think you're doing?"

"Bahaki isn't here anymore," said Kid, "so there's no point in preserving this place, attacking anyone who gets too close. Bahaki abandoned you." The monster screamed and its eyes began to glow not red but gold.

"BAHAKI," it cried, "I… YOU WOULD NEVER…" It let out a final scream of rage before it disappeared in a blinding flash of golden light. All that remained of its existence was a large crater in the snow and several broken streamers scattered about.

"Well…" said Liz, "problem solved?"

"I think so," Kid said as he examined the limp streamers in the snow, "At any rate, we'd better check out the Lam Building. It's what we came here for, right?" The meister and weapons clambered through the snow and Kid managed to pry open the door to the Lam Building. A look of horror swept over the three kid's faces when they saw what was inside.

"Umm… Liz?" said Patty, "What… is this stuff?"

"I don't like it," wailed Liz, "It looks creepy, like some sort of twisted laboratory. Do we have to go inside?"

"Normally I'd say yes," Kid groaned, "but to be perfectly honest, I don't want to go in there any more than you two do." There was a moment of silence.

"I'd better get a report to father right away," said Kid as he began to shut the door, "Someone should look into this place further… just not us." And with that, he slammed the doors closed.


End file.
